


The Brain Trust

by LilAnnieSunshine



Series: SasuSaku Month 2020 [18]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Bad Advice, Blank Period, Drunk Uchiha Sasuke, Drunken Confessions, Drunkenness, F/M, Friendship, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25584739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilAnnieSunshine/pseuds/LilAnnieSunshine
Summary: Sasuke returns to the village, expecting some peace and quiet with his crush, Sakura.Instead he's greeted by Naruto, who wants to help him confess his feelings.Naruto calls a meeting of the braintrust: himself, Shikamaru, Choji, and Kiba. Shino and Lee are along for the ride.Together they try to come up with a way for Sasuke to confess his feelings.It ends with Sasuke going to Sakura's house drunk.Written For SasuSaku month day 19: running wild
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Series: SasuSaku Month 2020 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812370
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	The Brain Trust

“You’re back!” Cheered Naruto, wrapping Sasuke in a bone-crushing hug as he walked up to the gates of the village.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the ‘welcome home’ he expected. “Where’s Sakura?” asked Sasuke.

Naruto shrugged. “Hospital. Emergency surgery. She told me to greet you instead.”

Sasuke batted Naruto off of him. “Well, she’s good at her job, I’m sure she’ll be one any moment now. I better get over there.”

“Nope, she’ll be busy for the whole night.” Naruto grinned like the cat who ate the cannery.

“How do you know?” Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

“She told me.” Naruto shrugged. “She said she was going to meet you and then start her shift, but she got called in early. Which means I have you to myself for the night.” Naruto batted his eyelashes at Sasuke.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. “Don’t you have a girlfriend to be spending time with?”

“I get to see Hinata every day. You’ve been _gone_ for _months._ She knows I need to spend time with you.”

“I’m sure Sakura _needs_ to spend time with me too.” Said Sasuke walking toward the hospital despite Naruto’s warnings.

“Your _girlfriend_ is busy tonight, so if you want to spend time with someone, it will have to be me.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.” Sasuke blushed.

“Yeah,” Naruto rolled his eyes. “She’s just the only woman you’ve ever loved, the only one who occupies your thoughts all day, everyday, and even makes it into your kinkiest dreams.”

Sasuke grabbed Naruto by the collar. “I told you not to tell anyone about that.” Sasuke thought back to the mission he and Naruto went on shortly after he was put on probation in the village, he was allowed to go on missions, but needed an escort. Naruto came with him. They spent the night in a tent and Sasuke must’ve talked in his sleep because Naruto knew all about his feelings for Sakura after that night.

Naruto batted Sasuke’s hand away. “Whatever. Look, I don’t understand why you don’t just _tell_ her already. She’s loved her whole life. We’ve all been waiting for you to admit your feelings for her for _years._ Just get it over with so we can celebrate.”

“Who is _we_?” Sasuke was worried Naruto told other people about his feelings for Sakura.

“Just me, Sakura herself who is madly in love with you but is waiting for you to reciprocate, and Kakashi-sensei.”

“How does _Kakashi_ know?”

Naruto laughed. “He says he’s always known. After Sakura came to visit you in the hospital and you didn’t push her away, I told Kakashi-sensei that I was pretty sure you were in love with Sakura and I didn’t have a chance. He says he knew you at least thought she was cute when you waited for her to wake up after she fainted during the bell test. He says you’ve clearly been in love with her since the Forest of Death.”

Sasuke blushed. Kakashi hit the nail on the head, that _was_ how he fell in love with Sakura.

“Keep waiting,” Said Sasuke glumly. “I don’t deserve her, not yet.”

“Oh, you’ll never deserve her. But she deserves to be happy, don’t you think? So hurry up and confess!”

Sasuke just stared blankly at Naruto.

Light flashed across Naruto’s eyes. “I know, we’ll ask the brain trust!”

“Who’s the brain –“ just as Sasuke opened his mouth, Naruto dragged him away into the village.

They stopped outside of an ordinary looking apartment building.

“Where are we?” asked Sasuke.

Naruto rang the doorbell frantically.

Shikamaru appeared at the door, his eyes were sleepy like he just woke up. “You’re really lucky I don’t have roommates. They would be sick of your shit by now.”

Choji appeared behind Shikamaru, bag of chips in hand.

“We have a problem!” Said Naruto, “We have to assemble the brain trust!”

Shikamaru sighed. “This better not be like your _last_ problem, convincing that old ramen guy to extend his business hours.”  
“That was a _very_ important problem.” Choji said seriously.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “Come in, I take it the reason you’re here has something to do with Sasuke.”

Naruto sat down at the low table in Shikamaru’s living room. He patted the spot next to him for Sasuke to join. Shikamaru and Choji sat with them.

“He’s in love with Sakura and he doesn’t know how to tell her.”  
Sasuke tried to hide his blush and his annoyance, but he figured it wasn’t _too_ bad for Shikamaru and Choji to know about it. Shikamaru didn’t care about romance and Choji was too nice to make fun of him for his crush.

“So tell her. I don’t see what the big deal is.” Said Shikamaru.

“You haven’t told Temari how you feel.” Choji brought up.

“That’s different.” Barked Shikamaru. “She’s the sister of the Kazekage, it could be a whole international incident if our relationship fails.”

Shikamaru, like Sasuke had the tendency to overthink things.

“And what about Karui?” Asked Shikamaru.

“She knows how I feel.” Shrugged Choji. “We just agreed to take things slow. Long distance is hard, as you well know.” He gave a knowing look at both Sasuke and Shikamaru.

“Alright, how did you let her know how you feel?”

“It just came up after one of our long heart-to-heart talks.”

Sasuke and Shikamaru both blanched, neither of them was one for long heart-to-heart talks.

“Okay, clearly that won’t work for Sasuke.” Naruto said. “We’re going to need more help.”

Shikamaru got up and sent his messenger bird out. A few minutes later, Kiba came in kicking down the door with Shino and Lee behind him. “Woohoo! Time for another riveting meeting of the brain trust!” His hands were full of bags of alcohol.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. “ _Kiba_ is part of your brain trust?”

Naruto got up and pointed at Kiba. “Why the hell did you bring those two with you?”

Lee looked offended. Shino’s eyeglasses just glinted.

Kiba put down the alcohol on the table. “You know how much Shino hates being left out.”

Shino elbowed Kiba.

“Hey!” Kiba barked at Shino. “And we ran into Lee. I figured if I was already bringing Shino, it would be rude not to bring Lee. Why is Sasuke here?”

“That’s whose problem we’re trying to solve.” Explained Shikamaru.

“He’s in love with Sakura but doesn’t know how to tell her.” Choji understood that Sasuke was shy about his feelings, just like Shikamaru. He didn’t know how to help either of them confess since he knew his solution to the problem wouldn’t work for them.

Kiba smiled wolfishly. “Why don’t I just tell her for you?” He loved having dirt on Sasuke.

Shino slapped him upside the head. “You can’t even confess to that girl from the cat clan. You shouldn’t be teasing Sasuke.”

Sasuke blinked. “You mean Tamaki?”

“How the hell do you know her?” Barked Kiba.

“She’s an old friend.” Sasuke smirked. “I know her grandmother too.”

They were at a stalemate, which meant Kiba had to help him seriously solve the problem. “Fine, I’ll help if you tell me everything you know about Tamaki.”

“You help me first.”

Kiba walked over to the table and slammed down a bottle of Sake. “Fine, first thing’s first, liquid courage. Shikamaru?”

Shikamaru got up and got some shot glasses out of his kitchen cabinet. “Don’t spill on my table, Kiba.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Shikamaru put the shot glasses down next to everyone but Lee, who had sworn off alcohol because of how irritable it made him.

“I’ll make sure you don’t make fools of yourselves.” Lee explained. He put a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. “You’ll need to have some wits about you if you plan on winning Sakura’s heart.”

Sasuke nodded.

They tossed back a few shots and then got started discussing how Sasuke could go about confessing to Sakura.

Finally, they had a plan.

“Forget this pansy shit,” Said Kiba, putting a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. “I think you should just tell her.”

“Yeah?” Slurred Sasuke.

“Yeah, just go up to her and tell her, say ‘Tamaki, I want to be with you and I know you want to be with me, and if you can’t accept that I’m from a dog clan, you don’t deserve me anyway.’”

“Kiba, he’s trying to confess to Sakura remember?” Said Shino. He drank as much as the rest of them but he also had a liver of steel.

“It’s important to tell girls how you feel.” Said Choji.

“Yeah,” agreed Naruto. “Say, ‘Hinata you are the sweetest, kindest, most beautiful creature that’s ever walked this earth. I love you more than ramen. Will you marry me?’”

“If that’s your marriage proposal to Hinata, it needs some work.” Said Shino.

“We’re trying to help Sasuke win Sakura’s heart, remember?”

Shikamaru was silent, he was too busy coming up with ways to finally ask Temari out. Right now he had 147 different scenarios run through his head, and they all sucked.

“What do you propose, Lee?” Sasuke said earnestly. He knew Lee had a crush on Sakura at one point, and he had confessed to her before, so he might have some insight on how Sasuke could go about confessing.

“Say, ‘Sakura, we have a long, complicated history. You’ve loved me better than I deserve to be loved. I am so lucky to have you in my life. If you’ll take me, I’d like the honor of being your boyfriend.’”

Everyone was silent, what Lee came up with was a pretty good confession.

“I think Lee should help Naruto write his wedding vows.” Said Shino, amazed.

Kiba clapped. “That was great, man. Sasuke, I think you’re ready!”

“I am?” asked Sasuke.

“Yeah!” Agreed Naruto. “Just say all of those nice things Lee said and I’m sure she’ll fall for you.”

“When does Sakura get off from her shift at the hospital?”

Naruto checked his watch. “In about an hour.”

“I know what I have to do.” Sasuke tossed back another drink and leapt through Shikamaru’s window and off into the night.

“Should one of us go after him?” asked Shino.

“Eh, he knows what he’s doing.” Said Naruto, tossing back another drink.

Sasuke broke into Sakura’s apartment. He sat at the kitchen table eagerly awaiting her return.

He heard the doorknob jiggle and was greeted with the light from the hallway as Sakura stepped into the entrance.

“Sakura,” He purred in the way he always greeted her.

“Sasuke?” She said confused. She knew he wanted to see her but she didn’t expect him to be in her kitchen when she got home. She turned on the light and shut the door. He was on her in an instant.

Sasuke dropped to his knees and wrapped one arm around her waist, burying his head in her stomach. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Sakura flinched. This wasn’t like Sasuke at all. He rarely apologized, and when he did he was more composed. She lifted him up with one arm. “Who the hell do you think –“ She sniffed, smelling alcohol. She stopped in the middle of her sentence. She looked deep into his eyes, which were confused, it _was_ Sasuke. She dropped him. “Are you drunk?”

“Maybe a little.” Sasuke hiccupped, looking up at her from the floor.

It was a cute noise. Sakura laughed. “What happened?” She asked, helping him to his feet.

“Naruto.” Sasuke said, not ready to tell her about the advice he got on how to confess to her. That’s right! He was supposed to confess to her tonight.

“I’m not surprised.” Sakura said. “So you’ve been out running wild all night?” she asked, a hint of sadness in her voice.

“No. We stayed in.”

“Oh.” She sounded relieved. “Do you want to sleep here?”

“You want to sleep with me?” asked Sasuke.

Sakura blushed a deep red. “Oh, nothing like that, you shouldn’t be going anywhere in your condition.”

“Sakura,” Sasuke purred, touching his forehead to hers. “You _want_ to sleep with me.”  
Sakura blushed harder and pushed him away. “I don’t know _what_ you’re talking about, Sasuke, but you’re being very inappropriate –“

“Sakura, we have a long, complicated history. You’ve loved me better than I deserve to be loved. I am so lucky to have you in my life. If you’ll take me, I’d like the honor of being your boyfriend.”

Sadness flashed over Sakura’s features. “You poor thing,” She said gently, sadly. “You’re so out of it you’re starting to sound like Lee.”

“I mean it, Sakura.”

Sakura shook her head and held his hand. “Come on,” She started pulling him into her bedroom. “If you’re comfortable sharing the bed with me, that would be preferable, I can keep an eye on you better that way.”

“I’d love to sleep with you.” Sasuke insisted.

“Oh my,” Sakura laughed sadly. “The great Sasuke Uchiha has no idea what he’s saying.”

She pulled the sheets aside and gestured for him to get in. “Make yourself comfortable. I have to change.” Sakura took her pajamas into the bathroom with her and changed into them.

When she came out of the bathroom, Sasuke stared at her in awe, he had never seen her in pajamas before. She looked soft, he just wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her close, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t receive it well.

Sakura got in bed with him. “What is it?” She said looking deep into his eyes.

Sasuke reached his hand up and placed it on her cheek. “Thank you for everything.”

“That’s the first thing you’ve said that’s sounded like you all night.” She nuzzled into his hand. “Go to sleep Sasuke.” She took his hand off of he face and squeezed it. “We’ll talk about this in the morning.”

Sasuke slept like the dead, Sakura couldn’t sleep. Sasuke had just drunkenly confessed love to her. She knew it couldn’t be real, but the optimist inside her still hoped. Still, she had to talk to Sasuke about it the next morning.

Sasuke awoke to something warm beside him, he saw the shock of pink hair and reached out to find Sakura’s waist. He pulled her into him.

“Sasuke?” she cried in surprise.

“You didn’t give me an answer last night.” He murmured into her shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“I asked if you would do me the honor of letting me be your boyfriend and you told me I was ‘out of it’.”

“It sounds like you still are.” Sakura reached up and touched his forehead.

“I’m _not_ drunk Sakura, even if I was, my feelings for you don’t change. I love you now just like I loved you last night.”

“Sasuke…”

“Why is it so hard for you to believe?”

“I guess I’ve loved you so long, sometimes I wondered if the day would ever come when you would feel the same way.”

“I guess I’ll have to prove it then.” Sasuke said, it was odd how brave he was now, alone in bed with her. The rest of the world wasn’t there to judge him for how he handled things, it was just him and his Sakura. He kissed her forehead. “I wanted you to be the first person I saw when I got home, _not_ Naruto. I wanted to sleep here last night, not anywhere else. And I’ve wanted to tell you how I felt for so many years, but I’ve never had the courage to.”

“You’re serious?” asked Sakura.

Sasuke kissed her gently on the lips.

Sakura blushed. “I guess I should let you run wild with Naruto more often if you came to this conclusion.”

Sasuke just held her tighter, it was the beginning of a new life for the two of them, a life together.


End file.
